Ghost Theories Research Articles

Massive ghost theories with a line of defects

We study free massive fermionic ghosts, in the presence of an extended line of impurities, relying on the Lagrangian formalism. We propose two distinct defect interactions, respectively, of relevant and marginal nature. The corresponding scattering theories reveal the occurrence of resonances and instabilities in the former case and the presence of poles with imaginary residues in the latter. Correlation functions of the thermal and disorder operators are computed exactly, exploiting the bulk form factors and the matrix elements relative to the defect operator. In the marginal situation, the one-point function of the disorder operator displays a critical exponent continuously varying with the interaction strength.

Correlation functions of disorder operators in massive ghost theories

The two-dimensional ghost systems with negative integral central charge received much attention in the last years for their role in a number of applications and in connection with logarithmic conformal field theory. We consider the free massive bosonic and fermionic ghost systems and concentrate on the non-trivial sectors containing the disorder operators. A unified analysis of the correlation functions of such operators can be performed for ghosts and ordinary complex bosons and fermions. It turns out that these correlators depend only on the statistics although the scaling dimensions of the disorder operators change when going from the ordinary to the ghost case. As known from the study of the ordinary case, the bosonic and fermionic correlation functions are the inverse of each other and are exactly expressible through the solution of a non-linear differential equation.

Split string field theory II

We describe the ghost sector of cubic string field theory in terms of degrees of freedom on the two halves of a split string. In particular, we represent a class of pure ghost BRST operators as operators on the space of half-string functionals. These BRST operators were postulated by Rastelli, Sen, and Zwiebach to give a description of cubic string field theory in the closed string vacuum arising from condensation of a D25-brane in the original tachyonic theory. We find a class of solutions for the ghost equations of motion using the pure ghost BRST operators. We find a vanishing action for these solutions, and discuss possible interpretations of this result. The form of the solutions we find in the pure ghost theory suggests an analogous class of solutions in the original theory on the D25-brane with BRST operator Q_B coupling the matter and ghost sectors.

Wounds of Repetition in the Age of the Digital: Chris Marker's Cinematic Ghosts

The disturbed relation with the dead-forgotten and embalmed-is one of the symptoms of the sickness of experience today.... History is eliminated in oneself and others out of a fear that it may remind the individual of the degeneration of his own existence. The respect for something that has no market value and runs contrary to all feelings is experienced most sharply by the person in mourning, in whose case not even the psychological restoration of labor power is possible. It becomes a wound in civilization, asocial sentimentality, showing that it has still not been possible to compel men to indulge solely in purposeful behavior. The dead ... are expunged from the memory of those who live on. Men have ceased to consider their own purpose and fate; they work their despair out on the dead. -Horkheimer and Adorno, On the Theory of Ghosts

Loop Homotopy Algebras in Closed String Field Theory

Barton Zwiebach constructed the `string products' on the Hilbert space of combined conformal field theory of matter and ghosts. It is well-known that the `tree level' specialization of these products forms a strongly homotopy Lie algebra. A strongly homotopy Lie algebra is given by a square zero coderivation on the cofree cocommutative connected coalgebra, on the other hand, strongly homotopy Lie algebras are algebras over the cobar construction on the commutative algebras operad. The aim of our paper is to give two similar characterizations of the structure formed by the `string products' of arbitrary genera. Our first characterization will be based on the notion of a higher order coderivation, the second characterization will be based on the machinery of modular operads. We will also discuss possible generalizations to open string field theory.

String-ghost interactions and the trace anomaly.

A recently proposed conformal field theory of string ghosts with quartic interactions is investigated. On a flat world sheet the theory is closely related to the massless Thirring model, but on a curved world sheet it is different. Similarity with the Thirring model allows us to ``solve'' the theory, first by a functional computation of correlation functions, and then by bosonization. Because of differences from the Thirring model, the conformal anomaly and the ghost number anomaly depend on the coupling q. The former is given by 24\ensuremath{\pi}${T}^{\ensuremath{\mu}}$${\mathrm{}}_{\ensuremath{\mu}}$=[26-27q/(q+\ensuremath{\pi})]R where R is the world-sheet scalar curvature. This result suggests the possibility of using a modified ghost system to construct stringlike theories in space-time dimensions other than 26.

Geometrical gauge theory of ghost and Goldstone fields and of ghost symmetries

We provide a geometrical identification of the ghost fields, essential to the renormalization procedure in the non-Abelian (Yang-Mills) case. These are some of the local components of a connection on a principal bundle. They multiply the differentials of coordinates spanning directions orthogonal to those of a given section, whereas the Yang-Mills potential multiplies the coordinates in the section itself. In the case of a supergroup, the ghosts become commutative for the odd directions, and represent Nambu-Goldstone fields. We apply the results to chiral "flavor" SU(3)(L) x SU(3)(R) and to SU(2/1). The latter reproduces a highly constrained Weinberg-Salam model.

A theory of ghosts

It should be stated at the outset that this is a paper on physics, not metaphysics. Many physicists have turned to pseudophilosophy, metaphysics or parapsychology, but not the writer; at least not yet.

Vector Spaces with Indefinite Metric and Pole-Type Ghosts

In the present paper we aIm at studying a general formalism of quantum ·field theory a system in which all particles as constituents of a pole-type ghost (a multi pole ghost) move freely. For this purpose we should deal with a vector space with indefinite but non-degenerate metric, *) instead of the usual Hilbert space, as a manifold whose elements correspond to different quantized states of our system.· VVe first give the general definition of the pole-type ghost in this vector space and develop the theory from it by a field theoretical procedure.**) The general definition of an N-pole ghost is given in ~ 2. It holds either for field theory or wave mech~mics of many-particle systems. Section 3 is devoted to taking some of preliminary steps in order to make the problem as compact as possible. We extract there a £e\v essential features of theN-pole ghost from the definition. In ~ 4 we take a purely field theoretIcal viewpoint. We start with some of fundamental postulates which are essential in setting up , a quantum field theory of an isolated system. Under these postulates we develop a quantum field theory of pole-type ghosts in a unified way by applying the def­ initions given in §§ 2 and 3. Field operators of our ghost system are obtained in their proper forms with respect to the pole character. Froissart's theory of a dipole ghose)' and Nagy's theory of a tripole 5 ) ghost are included in the present formalism. In § 5 we show that both the Lagrangian and canonical formalisms . *) A vector space is called non~degenerate if th'ere exists no vector that is of zero ilOrm and orthogonal to all other vectors. For details, see, example, reference 1) or 2). **) Reports by Lukierski who treated the similar problem have recently appeared.3) He started from defining an N-pole field by a classical c-number function and quantized it in terms of N solu­ tions of the Klein-Gordon equation. Although his theory and ours result in equivalent mathematical contents, the two approaches are different and the results also appear in different forms.

The Fellowship of Being (review)

408 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY The Fellowship of Being. By John B. O'Malley. (The Hague: Martinus Niihoff, 1966. Pp. xii + 140. $5.60) This book is a study of the concept of person in the philosophy of Gabriel Marcel. It is the revision of a doctoral thesis, completed at the University of London, under the direction of A. J. Ayer. This fact, in addition to the intrinsic interest of the subject, gives the volume special interest, for it is one of an increasing number of essays establishing dialogue between British analytic interests and continental phenomenology. John B. O'Malley is well aware of current analytic concerns and frequently notes the relevance of Marcel's analysis to these issues. It is even argued that Marcel anticipated numerous concerns which became central in analytic philosophy includingproblems of language. O'Malley proposes that the person is the central and guiding concept in Marcel's philosophy and that his analysis of this phenomenon allows him to escape Idealism and ghost theories, and to reconcile the moral and the metaphysical viewpoints. It is to the person that bodily or mental predicates are applied. Consequently this concept is fundamental to the analysis of body-mind problems. It is this reality which offers the nonlinguisticreferent to which such predication may apply. An adequate analysis of person must not abstract from its subject matter but rather must include the person in "an act of reflective withdrawal." This is central in Marcers methodology, and thus the epistemology of the person is neither "acquaintance with" nor "knowledge about." The neglect of such involvement results in either extreme objectivism or extreme subjectivism, either of which misses the person. Objectivism replaces the personal with successive states and qualities. Subjectivism results in either solipsism or in a division between an absolute and a particular ego, and thus both lose the concrete and incarnate person. The embodied person is the center of my relationships and thus even ontological analysis must be directed toward it. The analysis cannot be merely problematic but needs to be meta-problematic. The person offers such meta-problematic analysis a meeting point of Being, Truth, and Value, thus overcoming the dichotomy between the moral and the metaphysical and between the normative and the descriptive. Unfortunately the essay could have used a further proof reading for it is marred by numerous printing errors. Although it is somewhat ponderous in style, it is a very carefully argued analysis of what is central to Marcel. To have such a discussion sympathetic to Marcel's perspective and yet written by one quite conscious of British philosophical concerns affords significant insight for the reader into a new stage of contemporary philosophy which is undoubtedly to center upon such conversation across the English channel. HAROLDA. D ~ American University Menschliche Existenz und moderne Welt. Ein internationales Symposion zum Selbstverst~indnis des heutigen Menschen. Hrsg. Richard Schwarz. (Berlin, 1967. Two vols., S. 810 and 885) In der "Einfiihrung" umreisst der tterauageber den Titel des Werkes. Es soil nach dem Selbstverst~indnis des Menschen gefragt werden, das heiflt, worin sieht der heutige Mensch die besondere Eigenheit seines Menschseins, sein "Epochalbewul~tsoin" (Litt). Gibt es gewisse Grundbefindliehkeiten,die MienMensehen gemeinsamsind? Kann noch yon einer gemeinsamen Wertwelt gesproehen werden? Sind dieses nicht infolge einer inneren Bedrohung nur fiberholte Gedanken? Das Werk soll die Antwort geben. Es ist nicht mSglich, alle in dem Buch aufgenommene Aufs~tze zu behandeln, mSgen sic auch gewinnreiche Beitr~ige sein. Datum muff eine gewisse Auswabl getroffen werden. Zu Beginn des Werkes spricht der leider verstorbene Eduard Spranger fiber den "Humanit ~tsgedanken", den er unter dem dreifachen Aspekt der Humanit~t als Bildung, als ethischpolitischen Begriff und als religiSs-ethischen Begriff wiedergibt. Bildung ist nicht blofl Tradi- ...